Looking for Thunderbolt 3 dock recommendations for a new MacBook Pro

My office is currently made up of older iMacs (2011) and MacBook Airs (2013). We are going to be upgrading soon and many people want to simplify to one powerful laptop that can be docked to all of their desktop peripherals (monitor, printer, backup hard drive, ethernet, etc.). We will be ordering the newest MacBook Pro models (2018), so the dock needs to be Thunderbolt 3 capable. I’d like to order something that can stay plugged into all peripherals, with one Thunderbolt 3 cable that plugs into and charges the MacBook when they are using it as a desktop.

Reviews seem to be all over the place with docks. Here are a few that I’ve looked at that seem to have decent reviews.

Any recommendations? Anyone using a similar setup? Anything I should look out for? Thanks in advance!

I’m using the Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock HD for some time now and I have had no issues with it. Just one cable to my mid 2017 MBP and everything is connected, including Gigabit Ethernet and a 32” 4K monitor. An on/of switch would have been nice (don’t know if any of the other docks have this), but other than that, it’s doing a great job.

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One thing to be careful of - if you are using an external monitor that refreshes at 60Hz, not all the docks support it. (Belkin, I think, only supports 30Hz. Not entirely sure; it came out after I purchased mine, so I didn’t pay as close attention.)

I’m using the OWC Thunderbolt 3 dock and am very happy with it.

Fran

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Belkin supports 60Hz. Besides the Belkin provides up to 85W to power your Mac, while the OWC has 60W max. That means the Belkin can charge a MacBook Pro and the OWC ‘only’ a MacBook ‘adorable’.

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Here be the link, in case anyone is interested. @vco1, it looks really nice, but goodness – these things aren’t cheap!

I presume it also requires an external power cord? If so - how long is it? Will it cover a large desk and still get to where it needs to, or have they skimped on the length?

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I own a Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock HD that I have used for 4 months together with a 2017 15 inch MBP. No issues related to this.
1 cable from Belkin to to the Mac, very sweet and minimalistic. 2 hard disk drives connected to the Belkin. 1 Dell non-4k screen connected to the Belkin. 1 usb-hub connected to printer etc.

So, it works for me and feels stable.

Only downside is my suspicion that if I had accepted a total of 2 cables connected to the Mac, a cheaper setup (without Belkin) might have been possible to achieve.

Magnus

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Good to know about Belkin / 60 Hz.

The OWC can charge my maxed-out 13” MBP/touchbar; so unless you have a 15” there should be no problem.

I use the TS3 Plus. It’s great. I haven’t had any wonky issues that you sometimes hear about with other docks.

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Thanks for the heads up on the refresh rates…hadn’t though about that.

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Yeah, I’ve heard nothing but good things about the TS3 Plus, other than one colleague that had one with a powerbrick that conked out. The support through CalDigit is apparently not the best, but they did end up sending a replacement. As for the actual functionality, it seems to do well.

I just received my TS3 today. Moved everything from other usb hubs and singles, including a 4K monitor and everything worked perfectly right away. Very impressed, but it darn well better do that for $300.

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I use the Elgato Thunderbolt 3 Dock for my MacBook Pro 2016. I really enjoy using it and I have enough ports for everything.

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